Description

Although biotechnology first emerged thousands of years ago with the production of foods and beverages like bread, wine, and beer, it has been recent decades that its full potential has developed thanks to advances in genetic engineering and molecular biology. These advances have converted it into one of the most powerful tools for increasing our levels of well-being and enabling the sustainability of our planet. The Biotechnology program strives to rigorously train the student, a future professional biotechnologist, in all aspects both biological as well as technological, which will enable them to design, develop, and obtain biotechnological products.

Career opportunities

Regulated profession: No

An education in biotechnology provides one of the professions with the greatest career prospects for the future. In fact, the biotech market sector is considered one of the strongest candidates for short-term job growth in Spain. Biotechnology professionals, like scientists, are capable of performing their work in basic and applied research in the life sciences, and especially in the development of biochemical, biotechnological, and bioindustrial processes to obtain products for the pharmaceutical, veterinary, agri-food, and chemical industries, as well as those related to the environment and mining.Sectors where biotechnology graduates can work include research (at public and private centers), education (secondary and higher), popular science, public administrations (like the health sector), service enterprises (analytical laboratories, commercial businesses, or the environmental field like those in bioremediation), and biotechnological industries. Among the latter, biotechnologists can practice in the food field (wines, beers, dairy, fermented vegetables, meat products, animal feed and additives, crops), in the pharmaceutical sector (production of antibiotics, vitamins, and other compounds, diagnostic materials), or in chemical industries (debugging, biodegradation, enzyme biochemistry, industrial microbiology).

Program Coordinator

Program delegates

Curriculum

ECTS credits: 240

Core

Required

Elective

External internships

Final Degree Project

60

150

24

0

6

ECTS credits

Design

The faculty of the UMH undergraduate biotechnology program is comprised by an important group of researchers of excellence who carry out their research at the Institute of Bioengineering and the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology on the Elche campus, as well as in departments at our university. The vast majority of its teachers have spent parts of their research careers at leading national and international centers, providing them with an extensive and diverse scientific background, and this helps provide the student with an excellent education.Recognizing English as the language of science, our program boasts among its students a group of high academic achievement (ARA group) that receives laboratory activity instruction in the English language. Students who belong to the ARA group receive a greater educational experience by being exposed to English terminology in this discipline from the very beginning of their education.The Biotechnology program consists of 240 ECTS credits, which are divided into 60 credits per each of its four academic years. Almost half of these credits are practical in nature, as it is an eminently applied discipline. The practical activities consist of wet, dry, and computer laboratories, in addition to classroom activities solving cases.Academically, the courses are grouped into seven thematic modules, through which the knowledge necessary for good biotechnology training is gained: Physics and Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Bioengineering, Health Biotechnology, Transversal and Professional Competencies, and a Final Degree Project. By completing the Final Degree Project, the student will reflect the skills that all good biotechnologists must possess, skills that will have been acquired throughout the program. As for the program subject matter, the first year covers the entire core subject matter, which is that related to the science branch of knowledge. Upon this knowledge, the remainder of the curriculum is based. Required subject matter, wherein the competencies and knowledge specific to biotechnology are taught, are distributed among the final three years, with the second and third consisting entirely of this. Required and elective subject matter coexist in the fourth year along with the Final Degree Project.The program's electives are indicated in the Courses section, and are part of the Transversal and Professional Competencies Module. This module can be completed either by taking these electives or by recognition for a series of activities such as internal and external internships, language skills, taking UMH Continuing Education courses, professional work experience, attending University workshops and conferences, etc. For complete information regarding this recognition, click on the following link: http://estudios.umh.es/reconocimiento-creditos/grados/